Grace Mutandwa

A country that works

This week I am working from our offices at the High Commission in Pretoria, South Africa – job shadowing. I am working with Russ Dixon and his team.

Just one day in the Pretoria office gives you an idea of just how hard these guys work. The amount of work they do and the number of programmes they whizz through in a day make you realise just how much work we in Harare would be able to do if we were working in a normal environment. South Africa is a country that works. The guys in the Pretoria office have an inspiring fire in their bellies. They have such an overwhelming sense of enthusiasm, it is contagious.

I will admit that I am quite envious of the fact that my colleagues can actually sit down and plan various projects and programmes, set up meetings that bear fruit and confidently speak of what they would like to do in the new year. Coming from Harare, Zimbabwe, I cannot very well say I can confidently say what our public diplomacy strategy will focus on and I cannot even realistically promise that our key objectives will be achieved. I sound despondent but the reality is that my colleagues here are in an enabling environment and I am coming from a place where tomorrow is definitely not promised!

We do a lot of good work in Harare but this week has made me realise just how much more we could achieve if the political situation normalised. We could do more were the environment less hostile. The Zimbabwe story is a major story down here. The difference is that there are so many papers writing about it and all in a very different way – it is just so refreshing even though some of the papers get it wrong. There is a media diversity that makes me envious. Here is a country that has its own political problems but has seen the benefit of different views. Community radio stations are in abundance. They are at least not seen as enemies of the state. Yes, the South African government has many complaints about the media but it is mature enough to realise that with democracy comes the responsibility of ensuring that the various freedoms are respected and upheld. Journalists do not live in fear of being abducted or brutalised. Zimbabwe could learn so much from countries that allow free speech. It might even start developing in the right direction. In the early 80s, I and I am sure several other Zimbabweans took so many things for granted. We lived our lives in a vacuum and allowed so many things to go wrong. We let go of our freedoms and rights and when we started realising our mistake, it was too late. We ceded power to people we trusted to look after our welfare. We went to sleep and forgot that good governance, democracy and human rights are precious commodities that need to be kept under close and constant guard. What we did can happen to any nation that relaxes and forgets or ignores the fact that absolute power corrupts absolutely and that leaders are people who need to be constantly made to account for their actions.

Yes, my colleagues in Pretoria buzz around and get things done. This used to happen in the early years of our independence in Zimbabwe. Development and humanitarian agencies worked efficiently because the country’s wheels were firmly on and were well greased. I feel really energised and there are many lessons I will take from Pretoria but will I still have a country to apply what I have learnt to? The decline in Zimbabwe continues.

As to the negotiations between ZANU PF and the two formations of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)- we are told by the leaders that people want a deal now. Really? Has anyone cared to check exactly what kind of deal the people want? Power is good but real power should always be vested in the people. Real power should be drawn from the people. Many people are already on one meal a day but I am sure even as the days get bleaker no one wants a deal that will be meaningless. We all want our country to work again and it can work again. There was a lot of goodwill at independence in 1980 and that goodwill is still out there. We just have to do the right thing as a country.

Posted at 17:05 22 August 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[5]

Firearm imports and broken limbs do not inspire hope

When I tire of my administrative duties I always find that going out on a tour of some of our community development projects rejuvenates me.

Under normal circumstances we would have visited and handed over at least 10 community projects from January to date. This has not happened because the whole country is at a standstill.

A presidential election whose results remain a secret, unless of course we go by what is in the public domain, but is not "legally ours as citizens to know or announce" does not create a conducive environment for the continuation of normal business.

Everytime I go out on a project handover I come back feeling that we actually make a difference to the people who benefit from our partnership with them. My colleagues in the Britain and Zimbabwe Community Partnership Programme do all the groundwork of assessing the viability of projects and how needy the community is. I just go to talk to any press there and enjoy the fruits of my colleagues' work.

On project tours you meet some of the most down to earth and warm Zimbabweans. People who only want to get on with their lives and crave the opportunity to give their children a better future.

Last Saturday I thought of the communities throughout the country who have had boreholes sunk, schools built or received textbooks and just how these same people might be faring with the news filtering in of violence.

Until Saturday, the news was just news. In the morning of that day I visited a friend who had been taken ill and was in a private hospital.

On our our way out a relative of the friend who was with me drew my attention to a young boy who was in the same room as my friend.

The boy was being treated for malaria and had become one of the several people who have been rendered homeless by the political turmoil in the rural areas.

The boy told us how their home in Mudzi, Mashonaland East had been razed and how his mother had managed to keep him and his three siblings together and escaped from the scene. He said they had been accused of being sellouts. They spent two days in the bush, moving on towards Harare when they felt safe to do so.

We soon discovered that there were several middle-aged men and young men with broken limbs. Women had severely bruised thighs and buttocks from the beatings and they all told stories of terror and mayhem.

No one in authority is of course admitting that this is happening. And while this goes on, a vessel carrying an enormous load of dangerous weapons is coasting the sea looking for a "friendly docking" point. The South African Transport Workers' Union saw it off the shores of Durban.

News reports say Mozambique and Tanzania have also refused to accept this valuable cargo. Reports say it is headed for Angola.

The An Yue Jiang has come all the way from China. The people in such great need of this military hardware are of course starving Zimbabweans who also have no drugs in their major hospitals. How very thoughtful!

While this drama is playing out, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, has urged China to; "Play a useful role in Zimbabwe without using firearms." He is also reported to have said he was happy that Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries had denied the ship permission to dock.

We have done community projects in the country's various provinces. It is a part of my job that keeps me fulfilled. It is a part of my job that I will always cherish. Our development agency DFID does sterling work in HIV/AIDS and runs supplementary feeding schemes that have in the past helped save lives.

The joy on the faces of those we assist is what even under very difficult political conditions keeps us going. The glimmer of hope in the eyes of those we help is what makes our jobs worthy.

Weapons and broken limbs will not rebuild this country. Destruction will do nothing for our children's future. Pain and fear have no room in a God-fearing democratic country. We need to restore hope and our dignity.

Posted at 16:03 28 April 2008 by Grace Mutandwa  |  Comments[2]